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Cathy, left, and Teresa explain a replica of the NASA Space Shuttle that is at the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center.

Cathy Deskur, 10, looks at a sunspot on the photosphere of the sun using a telescope at the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center. / KRISTOPHER RADDER / Staff Photo

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Drew Deskur, executive director of the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center, jokes that his daughters can give tours around the place as well as he can.

Turns out, he’s not kidding: Twelve-year-old Teresa and 10-year-old Cathy wheel around the place like pros, discussing the power of various telescopes and the life of the astronomer for whom the center is named.

Located atop a 1,720-foot-high hill in Vestal, the observatory is one strong spoke in the cultural and educational wheel that’s rolling toward the future — a STEM future, where females have equal entry into fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

To watch that future unfold, keep an eye on the Deskur girls.

“I like to understand how things work, not just watch them happen,” Teresa said as sister nodded in agreement.

“STEM education is a critical to the future of our nation,” Drew said. “As the economy has become more globalized, STEM careers are where we will see the greatest business growth in our country.”

Numbers for 2013 from The Alliance for Science & Technology show how male and female high school students’ interest in STEM disciples in the state rank against the national average.

While female students are ahead of the curve in science and math, they lag in technology and engineering.

That’s juxtaposed against U.S. Labor Department projections showing that New York will, by 2018, rank third — behind only California and Texas — in the number of non-self-employed STEM jobs that will need filling.

Although the number of female engineers and scientists in the workplace has been growing, that number hasn’t reached parity with males.

“It is probably a combination of the perception of ‘traditional women’s careers’ and the lack of hands-on experiences in STEM education for young female students,” he noted.

The federal Department of Commerce, in its “Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation” executive summary, noted that although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of all STEM jobs — and if they do have a STEM job, they likely earned 33 percent more than women in non-STEM jobs, with a gender wage gap slimmer than in non-STEM jobs.

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That said, women with STEM degrees are less likely than their male counterparts to work in STEM occupations, the summary said. “There are many possible factors ... including a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields. Regardless of the causes, the findings of this report provide evidence of a need to encourage and support women in STEM.”

At Kopernik, Drew Deskur’s all over that.

“We do our best to feature female role models as instructors and guest speakers,” he said. “We are working to add STEM careers to the list of ‘traditional women’s careers.’”

When he came on board, he ramped up “Girl Power” workshops to twice a year with his eye on still-greater frequency. They immerse participants in activities such as making their own Lunar Rover buggy, recording their own 30-second commercial, studying lunar soil samples on loan from NASA, exploring the oceans using satellite data, using Skype to chat with oceanographer Marci Delaney and more.

The Deskur girls take part in Girl Power and other Kopernik offerings whenever possible. Of course, their real home is filled with constant enrichment, too.

Their mom, Leann Lesperance, earned her doctorate in bioengineering from MIT before gaining her M.D. credentials at Harvard. Now her arm-long resume includes current positions as physician at the Decker Student Health Services Center at Binghamton University and clinical assistant professor at Upstate Medical University.

“For eight years, I had been faculty in the Bioengineering Department at Binghamton University but left that department in 2012 to focus more on clinical research,” said Leann, who is now an adjunct clinical associate professor in the Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University.

Drew, 57, is an engineer by training. The two of them share every aspect of parenting. That includes coaching their girls’ teams for Odyssey of the Mind and leading their Girl Scout troops — all of which meet in the rarified environment of the Deskur-Lesperance home in Vestal. Drew and Leann function as teachers as well as parents.

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“They don’t give me the answers,” Cathy said of her parents. “They help me figure it out.”

The family flips on the TV once or twice a week. Maybe. Instead, the living room hosts other sorts of sounds: those coming from all sorts of musical instruments.

“They’re more apt to pick one up and play it if it’s in plain view,” said Leann, 50.

And play they do, at home and in various local groups, such as Binghamton Youth Symphony Orchestra, musicals for their schools at the Endicott Performing Arts Center, and at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, where Dad is music director and Mom is a choir member and cantor.

Teresa, a seventh-grader at Vestal Middle School, plays recorder and violin. Her sister, a fifth-grader at African Road Elementary School, enjoys piano and double bass. Both play French horn.

Some STEM abilities and music go hand in hand, pointed out Wayne E. Jones Jr., interim dean at the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences and professor of chemistry at BU.

“Rhythm, patterns, tones, frequencies, algorithms, recognition of patterns — there’s a well-established link between music and mathematics,” he said.

With the Deskurs, there’s also an essential parent-child link that maybe trumps every other measure of enrichment the girls enjoy.

“Every opportunity we have, we explain about science,” Drew said. “And we ask at the dinner table, ‘What do you think about that?’”